Currently the act of radio listening seems to be synonymous with the current trends of the modern societies we live in, as it is not only unconsciously carried out or merely resultant of socialisation. It is rather on the terms and conditions of the young people who make the decision to consciously tune in and listen. This affects and defines the role that young people play in radio convergence, as the concept itself has proven to be rather a dynamic one that is interlinked with other social manifestations that emerge to drive and outline the need to communicate and stay informed. Currently listening to anything, whether it is listened and also watched at the same time, means making a choice to actually spend time to listen to that particular programme. Hence to some extent, the act of listening is closely tied to one’s immediate environmental encounters, which in South Africa are unique to one’s geographical placement. Geographical placement is a phenomenon that appears to impact how and what young people listen to on radio; and certain competencies are required for effective listening or accessing of certain portals.
Simultaneously, most of the time, language has acted as a determinant of what one is able to consume. Therefore, looking at radio listening from a young person’s perspective means taking all the above factors into consideration, especially the young people’s environment;
for a better understanding of their acquired social competencies one has to accurately profile the type of listeners these young people are. It is very striking that youth from backgrounds that encouraged and cultivated critical listening by providing them with different points of reference for information attainment, displayed a tendency to critically analyse any kind of information that they encountered. It can be argued that the resulting immunity to unconscious imbibing of information without critically analysing it first is due to their inherited awareness of the role of media.
Therefore, it is not surprising that young people from Khayelitsha have their listening options narrowed down to what is linguistically and culturally relevant and that they appear to be less critical of content quality or the quality of delivery by the presenters. Thus,
socialisation and cultural capital influence and inform the way young people approach and define meaningful radio listening (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1986, 1990) (See also Szeman, 2011; Julien, 2015; Fowler, 1997; Bennett, Savage et al., 2009). In radio listening, to some degree the level of one’s engagement affects how critical or passive one is when listening to radio.
Authors such as Tomaselli et al. (1989) in relating the history of radio development in South Africa have shown how the laws of the apartheid era, especially separate development, resulted in divisions that are still evident today in the country’s communities. The effects of apartheid geography and the concurrent socio-economic divisions, are still very much in place today. These divisions are directly linked to the inherent economic imbalances, with the result that township and urban populations consume media, radio in particular, differently. Crisell (1994), Hendy (2000), and Douglas (1999) helped in linking the history of radio and listening evolution in the Global North and in South Africa including the orality of people’s experiences with radio. Their documentation of radio listening and the development of radio, as described above, are very similar to how the sampled young people listen to radio. For instance, the act of listening with family has endured and these young people attest to this act (at both high school and university level). Their listening for personal gratification is also similar to when radio was still a novelty when, for instance, men used it to show their manhood, by assembling their own sets or making an effort to obtain a proper signal (Douglas, 1999; Hendy, 2000; Hamm, 1995). Douglas (1999) adds that, in the early radio days, people in general even chose to stay at home and listen to the radio instead of going to the theatre; thus this reflects the listening experience of the young people in this study as they also listen to gratify their listening needs –of course not dismissing that they do go out as well. Even though radio has developed technologically, it has, however, remained true to some of its early elements. Thus, the above gratification comparison further supports one of the arguments put forth in this study, that radio convergence must be seen as an extension of traditional radio as opposed to something that is meant to replace it.
As highlighted in Chapter 1, convergence, which Jenkins (2006) views as a circulation of content in various media spaces, has expanded and opened up the constantly evolving world of radio and now young people are able to use technology to interact, critique and
internalise what they are listening to. Their radio listening is also influenced by social interactions and the media which also bring different layers to radio convergence in South Africa, as young people are exposed to a variety of gadgets that serve the same purpose as radio and are even more convenient to their fast-paced daily schedules. The exposure has also influenced young people to listen and follow radio presenters that impress them; they rarely follow celebrities blindly but follow those who embody aspired-to values.
Both those who listen to radio in its traditional form and those who use modern means to access radio, seem to have been somewhat influenced by their parents or an older person in the family. This listening is passed down passively; it was not forced but it rather happened naturally. Years later, those young people have fond or not-so-fond memories of their early radio encounters (Tacchi, 1998) with their parents, making listening to radio a somewhat sentimental and nostalgic experience that connects them to their childhood. Thus, whether they acknowledge it or not, young people have at some point been influenced into listening to radio, therefore suggesting that the act of listening to radio is not an impulsive or uninformed, but rather informed and intentional, even though levels of awareness may differ according to individuals’ experience. Still, young people listen because they have made a conscious decision to do so. Ergo, the people who embrace radio convergence are most likely responsible listeners who listen to radio for a range of reasons; and who, even though they are exposed to information at their fingertips, still return to radio because of its familiarity.
Radio listening in the time of convergence requires awareness and the ability to use technology at one’s exposal to participate in the technological advancements. In addition, it is shown that the online-only radio stations in this study (CliffCentral, Ballz Visual Radio and Assembly Radio) use these technological advancements to their advantage, as they rely heavily on SNSs, Internet based applications to interact with their audiences.
Also, while the content of the these online-only radio stations differs, the establishment of each one was driven by a need to escape the restrictions of programming that is a fundamental feature of terrestrial, traditional radio, as well as the regulatory watchdogs, BCCSA (Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa) and ICASA (Independent Communications Authority of South Africa). The founders of the stations recognised that
the new technology was delivering news, music and general entertainment and that they needed to attract listeners by means of branded content. Their audience comprises a new breed of intentional listeners who seek to access the stations actively as opposed to the almost passive turning of a button to access terrestrial radio. Though a number of individuals who work on online radio stations, especially those included in this research, have turned their back on traditional radio, they admit that the years of experience in traditional radio make it easy for them to function and thrive in the online radio spaces.
They use the acquired knowledge of what works and what does not work in traditional radio to make the best of the newly formed stations.